Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Annecy II

I think that Annecy is the destination that gets the Most Liveable Award of all the places we have visited on our Ramble. And that's not just because there's a huge animated film festival on here at the moment (although it must be included as a factor).

The other night we took ourselves down to the park by the lake by the canal at about 9:30 pm. A sizeable crowd was building in front of a huge inflateable movie screen. A crowd-warmer-upperer was teaching the crowd a mass dance that appeared to be the 21st century equivalent to line dancing. Lots of arm waving, moving to the side, moving to the other side, clapping and then more arm waving. All this accompanied by a pop song in English. The warmer-upperer really had that crowd pumping!

After an hour or so that activity ended and a group of honchos from the film festival hopped up on stage and talked about its goings on. In French, of course. Then an American chap explained how good it was to be in France (in English) and introduced his new animated movie about clocks in a shop at night. One of the clocks was always running 10 minutes late, which really got up the noses of all the other clocks. Now one night a robber came to steal clocks just after midnight so that he could do his robbing after all the chiming had finished. However, the little clock chimed his usual 10 minutes later, thereby alerting a police officer and aborting the robbery. Well, you can imagine what a hero this turned our little running slow clock into! The other clocks stopped bullying him and the clock maker fixed him right up so that he always ran on time. No need to examine the logic of this short movie. The animation was fabulous and it was a cute story. The American chappie assured us that this was the VERY FIRST TIME that this film had been seen in public! Wowsers!

The Ramblers were rather bushed, so we left our rather ideal spot in the crowd after the clock movie and left the crowd to watch the main feature (in French) to the unbelievably well behaved crowd (no alcohol anywhere to be seen). There must hace been upwards of 2000-3000 people there! It was FAR too late for The Ramblers, whose bottoms were getting cold sitting on the concrete light pole base anyway. We choofed off home to bed to prepare ouselves for a Lyon Ramble in the morning. The moment had been magical with the lake-side setting, the well-behaved crowd of mosly young people (20s to 30s, with some young families mixed in), the fading light, the beautiful lake and the fabulous mountains. I shouldn't wonderthat the lake freezes over completely in winter.

I do know that there is lots of great skiing to be done in the colder months, both downhill
and cross- country. But then again, the city is ideally situated, isn't it, with the French Alps glowering in the background and Switzerland only a stone's throw away it is all way too perfect! Add to that the water sports, walking and cycling in warmer months and Hey Presto, ideality! Wangaratta with a lake!

Nighty-night, y'all!

The Ramblers

1 comment:

  1. Very cold here. 8 degrees max yesterday. I have found Annecy on my map. Couldn't locate some of your other locales but knew the general direction.
    Cheers, Fran

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